This document discusses the upstream oil and gas regulations in India and provides details about the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP). It notes that the upstream sector is directly regulated by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with technical support from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. It then provides an overview of NELP, including its objectives to provide a level playing field and boost exploration through technology. The document also summarizes the blocks offered and contracts signed under the first nine rounds of NELP bidding.

1. Upstream Regulations and
NELP-Evolution & Analysis
Group - 2
Abhas Mittal-20141001
Apurva Mittal-20141009
Parth Mehta-20141047
Pranjal Kishore-20141050
Rajan Zaveri -20141056

2. Upstream Segment
 Directly regulated by MOPNG with the technical support
of DGH
 Laws and Regulations Governing the Sector
Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Act 1948
Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules 1959
The Oil Industry (Development) Act, 1974
The Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive
Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zones Act, 1976
NELP
CBM Policy

3. NELP- New Exploration Licensing
Policy
 Conceptualized by Amit Singh on request of GOI in 1997-
98.
 To provide level playing field in the Business of Exploration
and Production.
 In total there are 26 basins in India with an area of about
3.2 million sq. Km.
 At present just over 1 million sq. Km area under 18 basins is
held by ONGC and OIL.
 Till date there have been biddings for basins under 9 NELP
regimes.
 A total of almost 400 Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs)
have been signed under NELP.

4. Objective of NELP
 To provide level playing field in terms of competition
for all investors in the business of Exploration and
Production.
 To provide several concessions and incentives to both
Public and Private sector companies .
 To boost the overall Exploration and Production
industry in the Country by promoting the use of better
technology and hence improving the contribution of
Domestic resources in the Energy basket of the
country.

5. Need of a policy like NELP
 To achieve self sufficiency in terms of the demand of
crude and Natural Gas in the country.
 To reduce the Import bill of the country to a huge
extent.
 To make optimum utilization of the Natural resources
of the country that would otherwise have been wasted.
 To promote healthy competition in the sector amongst
the Public and Private players.

6. NELP 1 and 2
 Bids were invited on 8 January ‘99 for 48 blocks of Oil and
Natural Gas.
 12 of these were Deepwater, 26 were Shallow water offshore
blocks and 10 were Onshore blocks.
 PSC’s signed for 24 blocks out of which only 11 blocks are
under operation.
 NELP -2. The bids were invited on 15 dec’00 for 25 blocks.
 8 Deepwater, 8 shallow offshore and 9 onshore.
 PSCs signed for 23 of these blocks. Out of which only 4 are
currently operational.

7. NELP 3 and 4
 Third round bidding was invited on march 27 ’02 for
27 blocks. Out of these 9 were Deepwater, 7 shallow
offshore and 11 onshore blocks.
 PSCs were signed for 23 blocks out of which 19 blocks
are currently in operation.
 Fourth round of bidding was invited on 8 May’03 for
24 blocks out of which 12 were deep water, 1 shallow
offshore and 11 onshore.
 Out of these 20 PSCs were signed and 19 of them are
still operational.

8. NELP- 5 and 6
 For fifth round bids were invited for 20 blocks for
which almost 70 bids were received from around 50
global and domestic majors.
 Of these 6 were deepwater, 2 shallow offshore and 12
onshore. PSCs were signed for all 20 blocks some of
which are still awaiting drilling permission.
 In the sixth round, 16 prospective basins consisting of
25 onshore, 6 shallow water and 24 deepwater blocks
were there.
 PSCs signed for 52 of these blocks and all of them are
currently active.

9. NELP- 7, 8 and 9
 For 7th round, bids invited for 57 blocks in 18 sedimentary
basins consisting 29 onshore, 9 shallow water and 19
deepwater blocks.
 On Dec. 22’ 08 PSCs signed for 41 blocks.
 In round 8, GOI offered 31 PSCs on June 30’ 10.
 There were 8 deepwater, 11 shallow water and 12 onshore
blocks.
 The last round of bidding was NELP 9.
 A total of 33 blocks were offered and ONGC bid
successfully for 10 of them. OIL also managed to get 10
blocks.